Don’t know if this is of any use to you?

http://www.google.co.uk/firefox?client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official

Just did a search and was given a UK map, USA, UK Canadian information before what I’m looking for from Australia.

I figure there is an opportunity for some other search to overtake Google here.

Bing is looking like that at present

You now have to waste time with a general search before you are then offered the uk option in the left hand column.

Can someone recommend an alternative that I can switch to?

I think you men you wrote about it. Or described it. Or commented upon it.

There is no substitute, in good writing, for clarity of expression. Style is not a substitute. Unless clarity is at the heart style becomes fluff. Froth.

From the Google “10 things” corporate philosophy page, under the “don’t be evil” point, which lays out the relationship between organic results and ads:

“It is a core value for Google that there be no compromising of the integrity of our [organic] results.“

So now, suppose Google is A/B testing two different search interfaces, A and B. System A is is “search as ten links” (traditional web search) system. System B is this new generation of “search as application” with enhanced UI and interaction.

Suppose furthermore that clickthrough/usage rates in System A is medium for organic results, and medium for advertisements. And suppose that clickthrough/usage in System B is high for organic results, and low for ads. Are you with me so far? Basically, System B increases user satisfaction with organic results, at the expense of ads.

I submit that if Google then chooses to deploy System A over System B, then they have compromised the integrity of their [organic] search results. Why? Because the search results under System B were actually much better, as measured by usage, than under System A. But by not choosing B, because ad clickthrough was lower, Google has placed the interest of the advertisers above the interest of the users, thus compromising the quality of their organic search system.

And what John has said is that this is exactly what Google did.. they tested their “application-like” search interface until they came up with one that did not lower ad clickthrough rates. If that is really true, then that shows a willingness for Google to compromise the integrity of their search results.

On top of that, Google has said:

“Google’s advertising programs are independent of Google’s search results.”

http://adwords.google.com/support/aw/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=172101

If now there is a team at Google that is optimizing a System metric in which clickthrough/usage of organic results is NOT measured independently of clickthrough/usage of ads, then that means that Google’s advertising programs are NOT independent of Google’s search results. Why? Because the metric is involved in a feedback loop to the parameters of a ranking algorithm. And if that metric is not independent, then neither are the results, or the interfaces, etc.

Correct?

Yes, and that’s primarily why the target audience for people who advertise on that site are GooTards (I think John has a nice graphic showing such a “typical” profile …. However, I find it amazing that advertisers would be willing to pay so much money to reach such a naive + unsophisticated demographic.

BTW: I tried searching for you by name on startups.com, but couldn’t find your profile (I take it you use an “alias” user name)

nmw

@John There’s no place like Everywhere ;D

See also http://www.theonion.com/video/google-opt-out-feature-lets-users-protect-privacy,14358/

LMFAO!

nmw